


Mists of Avalon

by Zafaria



Category: Wizard101
Genre: one day i will not write wiz i swear, today is not that day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2020-03-08 08:18:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18890743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zafaria/pseuds/Zafaria





	Mists of Avalon

** Mists of Avalon **

    On shaky legs with rolling feet, Laura approached the stilted swamp house. There were murmurs floating around the Spiral, word of mouth traced back to more word of mouth traced back to a hazy point of origin. Laura's friend Saffron had been gone for five years. Whenever Laura thought of the pale and smiling girl, her mind would immediately connect to the day she was announced missing. She would see her brother Cameron reading the bulletin board by the Bazaar, hand clasped over face and collapsing under the corkboard. Every time the memory colored her mind, she would watch herself run to Cameron's side, begging him to tell her what happened.

     Cameron and Saffron had been truly in love, in such a way that they saw their future together, as either florists or blacksmiths, taking residence in a clean marble building in the city. As soon as Cameron's eyes glanced over the bulletin, the dream evaporated. For years, he would go on sitting hunched at his desk at night, dark wash of the room consuming him. Laura would hear him sob from next door, and then Laura quietly cried.

     Then a few of the other students found a way to Avalon. They had their own problems to cope with, ones more universal. They had not known Saffron, but had they arrived a year sooner they would have been fast friends with her, eating lunch in the Commons and walking between the spires of the towers. Saffron was magnetic.  
  
     When those students came back from Avalon, they carried on their triumphant coattails whisperings of a strange bog witch and a hut with crab legs. She had been reserved, but generally kind, they said.

     When these words reached Laura on the day before Halloween, it reminded her so definitively of Saffron that she had to forgo her night of giggling and carrying pillowcases full of sweets. By the next morning, Laura had a pillowcase packed with bread and medicine and a sword steadied in her hand. She was prepared to go deep into the Wild, beyond the brambles, thorn vines, and fog to see the truth.  
  
     Now, Laura was in the woods, faint glow of the sliver-moon overhead illuminating her scared eyes in the damp night. Bats in trees around her gave screeches, and branches loomed towards her face to grab her and drag her to some deeper, darker badlands.

     Laura approached the hut and gave a timid knock. She waited a minute with burbling swamp water and buzzing crickets filling the air. Laura knocked again, a more resolute knock with her knuckles searing. Behind the frail-looking door and bubble-shaped windows, she heard glass shattering in a twinkle. Breathing in, she took small steps back. Whoever opened the door would be upset, she thought.

     There was a clink as the huddled figure poked out from behind the wall. She had a deeply furrowed brow and mangy black hair, almost frosted and grey. The witch’s expression softened as it fell on Laura’s face while the girl stood outside, staring mute. Laura’s mouth hung open.

     “You’re? You’re okay?” Laura gasped.

     Saffron breathed in. “Yes, I’m fine. I’ve been fine.”

     Laura was close to tears and stepped closer to wrap her arms around Saffron’s shoulders.

     “Why did you leave?” Laura had her head nestled under Saffron’s stiff head.

     “Ambrose never liked the astral magic thing. I made a mistake and couldn’t go back. It’d be criminal.”

     “No, no. He took away the penalty for it after you left. We… he posted bulletins saying you had died.”

     “Oh…” Saffron was quiet a moment before starting again. “Don’t you have somewhere else to be? You know, friends and Halloween?”

      “This is actually the only house I wanted to stop by,” Laura said. She smiled, “this is good enough for me.”

    “…Happy Halloween, then.”

    “So, you’ll come back?”

    “I’ve always wanted to. I never wanted to leave.”

     Laura rushed into the house and began helping Saffron shuffle through the dust and stacks of papers, tying things hurriedly into a knapsack. In the early morning, long before the sun broke the horizon, Laura grabbed her friend’s hand as they winded their way through the murky forest to reach the world door. By the afternoon, they would be home again, surrounded by friends and catching up as they shoveled candy into their mouths.


End file.
